Bello: Order vs. contractualization out on Dec. 28

DEPARTMENT Order (DO) 30, which will put an end to labor contractualization in the country, will be made public on Dec. 28, Secretary Silvestre Bello III said yesterday.

“Dec. 28 is the date that we chosed. Then the name of that department order is ‘DO 30’,” said Bello in an interview.

DO 30 is set to replace the DO 18-A, or the rules implementing the Articles 106 to 109 of the Labor Code.

To recall, President Rodrigo Duterte had previously vowed to stop contractualization once he is elected as President of the Philippines.

For his part, Labor Undersecretary Dominador Say fanned the belief that the new DO will only be an improvement of the DO 18-A.

This after he admitted that they are already preoccupied with the fine-tuning of the DO issued by the previous administration.

“DO 18-A is still under revision... We are fine-tuning it for strict observance and will be signed before the year ends,” said the labor official.

Say said they were even able to find some provisions of DO 18-A as going beyond what are provided for in the Labor Code.

“The 18-A has some provisions that go beyond the law,” said Say without providing details.

The five-year-old DO 18-A allows some forms of contractualization employment schemes.